This invention relates in general to article feeding devices and deals more particularly with an improved article feeder of the vibratory bowl type having a bowl formed with a helical ramp along which articles to be fed travel in response to vibration of the bowl. This invention more specifically relates to vibratory bowl feeders for orienting and feeding axially elongated articles in axially side-by-side relation to each other wherein each article has an axially elongated body and a radially enlarged portion axially spaced from at least one end of the body. The present invention is particularly concerned with an improved article feeder ring used with a vibratory bowl feeder.
A vibratory bowl feeder of the specific type with which this invention is concerned is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,626 issued June 12, 1984 to Roberts, et al., and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. In that feeder a supply of articles loosely contained within a feeder bowl are discharged upwardly by means of a peripheral ramp leading to a gated outer rim through which articles are successively discharged in a generally radial direction to a rotating annular ring surrounding a portion of the outer periphery of the feeder bowl to provide a contiguous surface with the terminal portion of the ramp. The ring has formed therein a relatively large annular groove to receive a tangentially extending take-away conveyor for successively discharging the articles carried on the ring.
It is often desirable to increase the rate at which articles are discharged especially if the vibratory bowl feeder cooperates directly with other equipment to feeder articles to the equipment. Generally, the discharge rate is increased by increasing the amplitude and/or duration of operation of the vibratory bowl to flood the discharge area at the gated outer rim area. Although such flooding may be suitable as one way for increasing the discharge rate of articles having a relatively large cross-sectional body diameter, it is totally unacceptable when the articles have smaller cross-sectional body diameters especially in those instances when the diameter of the article is less than the depth of the annular groove in the rotating take-away ring. The discharge rate of such smaller diameter article bodies is often reduced substantially below a desired discharge rate to avoid a discharged article from becoming lodged in the annular groove and beneath the body of another article being carried on the ring surface. Occasionally, such lodging of one article beneath another jams the discharge area and prevents the further discharge of articles.
Consequently, it would be desirable in a vibratory bowl feeder to prevent one article from becoming lodged beneath the body of another article carried on the surface of the take away-ring.
It is a general object of the present invention therefore, to provide an improved take-away ring for use in a vibratory bowl feeder apparatus for feeding a continuous supply of axially elongated articles oriented in axially side-by-side relation that overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks and disadvantages of take-away rings used with the above described vibratory bowl feeder.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the drawings forming a part thereof.